Davis, Pinckney unite behind Bluffton ports expert

About an hour after one of South Carolina's appointees to the Jasper Ocean Terminal board emailed government leaders yesterday in opposition to a bill aimed at him, I asked Sen. Clementa Pinckney to meet with me to tell me whether he agreed with the arguments made by this appointee - Bluffton's own Bill Bethea.

Pinckney, fresh from an affordable housing awards ceremony, rushed into the Senate lobby with a printout of Bethea's email. In that email Bethea warned that a Senate resolution, S. 1410, could kill the $4-5 billion bi-state Jasper Ocean Terminal.

And if you're wondering where Pinckney and Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, stand on the resolution? Well, they're standing in its way.

And they're sticking up for Bethea.

On Thursday Pinckney defended Bethea, and called the resolution an "existential threat to the future growth and development of the port."

"It unfairly singles him out," said Pinckney, of the resolution, S. 1410. He said he opposed it even before he got Bethea's memo an hour earlier.

Bethea "has been an honest broker from the beginning of this project," said Pinckney. "His credentials are impeccable, he is knowledgeable, and his heart is in seeing this project through."

When Pinckney said that yesterday, I was reminded of some of the chatter outside the Senate floor a week ago, when the resolution received a 37-0 "second-reading" vote. Changes to the JPO's rules for its South Carolina delegation were needed on account of "the one that voted with Georgia."

In a four-page memo emailed to about a dozen key lawmakers, staff, and local leaders earlier that day, Bethea detailed his objections to the Senate resolution and to statements that its champion, Sen. Larry Grooms, had made about the dredge-spoils-related vote on March 19 by the Jasper Ocean Terminal Joint Project Office.

The JPO consists of three members from South Carolina - one of which is Bethea - and three from Georgia.

In the email, Bethea said the Senate resolution "intended to reprimand and undermine a recent vote of the Jasper port body."

Davis and Pinckney's blocking action against the resolution, which places the legislation on the "contested calendar" of the Senate, means it will take a lot of effort from the other side to move forward.

When I asked Sen. Davis to elaborate on his stance toward resolution, he said this in an email today:

"Because of the concerns expressed by Bill (Bethea), and because members of the Senate need to more fully understand the status of the Jasper port and the impact that S. 1410 (a joint resolution sponsored by Sen. Grooms) would have on that project, I have blocked third and final reading on the joint resolution. I have worked with Bill on the Jasper port project for the past five years and there is no one who is more knowledgable about the issues involved or who is more committed to making the port a reality."